Actor's love for local wine is no illusion

Sleight of Hand Cellars may be known for the alchemy in its bottles. But another kind of magic took place for the winery Wednesday courtesy of a celebrity endorsement.

Shortly after Neil Patrick Harris sent out a Tweet plugging Sleight of Hand’s 2011 Conjurer, the winery’s website crashed for two hours.

“Delicious, with a fetching label,” the Tweet said as it linked to a pic of the label featuring Guess Who? None other than NPH himself.

The Twitterverse buzzed with activity about the wine, and of course the inference that the website’s crash may have had something to do with an increase in traffic resulting from the kind words about the Bordeaux-style blend.

Many may know of Neil Patrick Harris as an actor famous for, among so many things, “How I Met Your Mother.” But it turns out he’s also a magician who’s on the board of the Magic Castle in Hollywood, where Sleight of Hand wines have been on the glass pour list the last five years, said the winery’s owner and winemaker Trey Busch on Wednesday. Harris has been a member of Sleight of Hand’s Wine Illusionist Society wine club since right after the opening in 2007, Busch said.

Last August while pouring for a fundraiser at the Castle — an effort for the firefighters who saved the building from burning two years ago — “we asked if he wanted to grace one of our labels,” Busch said.

“Neil was a natural choice, and he was all for the idea.”

Each of the current labels, he explained, features either his own face, or that of partners Jerry and Sandy Solomon, Busch’s wife Jennifer Busch, or Professor Phelyx, the label designer and professional sleight-of-hand magician whose various works of performance and graphic arts are showcased through the winery.

By the way, Phelyx will be performing in May at the Gesa Power House Theatre.

A piece quickly written Wednesday for “Eater Seattle” wagered that the Tweet could soon result in the disappearance of the 460 cases of Conjurer.